NSW Trustee and Guardian

15-25 minutes

A short factsheet on NSW Trustee and Guardian: the statutory trustee and guardianship body that replaced the former Public Trustee and Protective Commissioner.

Learning level: Orientation
Jurisdictions: nsw
Subjects: administrative-law, succession
Topics: statutory-bodies-and-regulators

Learning outcomes

State NSW Trustee and Guardian's establishing Act and the two former offices it replaced.
Identify the statutory capacities it can act in: trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, financial manager and agent.
Identify that NSW Trustee and Guardian is a trustee and service-delivery body, not a regulator or prosecuting authority.

Act: NSW Trustee and Guardian Act 2009 (NSW).¹

Established: Commenced operating 1 July 2009, replacing the former Public Trustee and the former Protective Commissioner with a single combined body.

Purpose: NSW Trustee and Guardian provides statutory trustee, executor, financial-management and guardianship services — a mix of private-law trustee work and protective (guardianship- adjacent) functions that were previously split across two separate offices.

Powers conferred under the Act

Section 6 constitutes NSW Trustee and Guardian. It may be appointed to and act in a range of statutory capacities, including as trustee, executor or administrator of a deceased estate, collector of an estate under an order to collect, agent or attorney, guardian or receiver of a minor's estate, receiver of other property, and financial manager of the estate of a managed person. In these capacities it can hold, lease, buy, sell and mortgage property, and it may prepare wills and carry out probate and estate-administration work.

Is it a prosecuting authority?

No. NSW Trustee and Guardian is a trustee and service-delivery body exercising private-law and protective functions on behalf of individuals — it is not a regulator of other bodies and has no prosecuting or general enforcement function. No specific leading case is cited here.

Self-check

Have I described NSW Trustee and Guardian as a trustee and protective-services body, not a regulator?
Have I named the two former offices (the Public Trustee and the Protective Commissioner) it replaced in 2009?
Have I avoided asserting case law this factsheet did not confirm?